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Practical responses and examples of best practice

First hand knowledge: voices across the Mekong: community action against trafficking of children and women

Stories from children and women at risk from trafficking in the Mekong region

Authors: ; Mekong Sub-regional Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women
Publisher: International Labour Organization , 2005

This paper is an account of the stories of children and women, and the communities to which they belong, who explain their engagement in a program designed to help prevent trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation. The accounts are drawn from communities in the five participating countries: Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and China. The respondents recount the most positive results of the project to date, and how their shared experiences (consultation and participation) have made a difference in their lives. They speak of learning about their rights and ways to take action to protect themselves through a range of community efforts designed to raise awareness about trafficking, to promote gender equality, and to organize self-help groups.

The paper also documents the impact of a rights-based, participatory programme to engage with these individuals. The impats of this approach suggest that:

  • children are seeing changes in their relationships within the family, in school, and in the community
  • communities are more caring and supportive of children, women, and families at risk of trafficking
  • young people are becoming their own advocates and exercising the responsibilities that come with their rights
  • women are finding strength in organization
  • District and provincial authorities are creating enabling and participatory environment for local action
  • national governments are thinking more about their poor and vulnerable groups